AWH November Blog Hop: Sketch This

Hi!

Tonight the Art With Heart team are sharing creative projects featuring a card sketch. We hope you like how we have each put our own spin on the sketch and that it inspires you to get creative and make some fabulous cards. If you are inspired by the sketch, please share with us!

Just like last month, I decided to scrap a layout rather than make a card. I'm keen to get stuck into scrapping my USA trip, so this was just the starting point I needed. This page will be the opening page to my album.

Can you see how I used the photos and postcard to replicate the main part of the sketch? I pretty much ignored the rest of the sketch as it didn't work with my page, but the most important part is included. I purchased the post card on my trip. I often do, as they photos are usually better than any I can hope to take! In this case though, the rustic flag appealed. Can you see that it's the flag painted onto some boards?

I then picked two photos that were the highlights from the two main parts of my trip. I had such a wonderful time travelling with Judy May, Kathryn Mangelsdorf and Rachel Palmieri, so I wanted to include them in this layout. The photo with the Aussie flag is from our visit to Stampin' Up!'s Home Office in Riverton, Utah, and the bottom photo is on the registration day of OnStage in Orlando, Florida, where we met Sara Douglass, the CEO of SU. You can see that I've cropped the photos to fit the sketch. How fabulous that the two photos I wanted to use worked perfectly!

I üst had to include a kangaroo to go with the American feel of the page. The kangaroo featured heavily in my swaps and gifts, so it will also feature heavily in this album. I coloured is with my watercolour pencils and blended with my Wink Of Stella pen. I tossed up between my Blends and pencils, but in the end went with the pencils as I felt it worked better with the rustic look of the flag postcard.

I love the Labeler Alphabet set! It's fabulous and versatile and will also feature heavily in the album, as it did on my swaps and gifts. And, yes, I did wear that flag headband for most of OnStage! It was a great way for people to find me, so I only took it off during the sessions so that I didn't annoy people sitting behind me.

Thats it for me for this month. You're now off to see what treasures Rachel Woollard has for you!

If you get lost along the way, here's the list of blogs participating in today's hop:

Rebecca Jacovou
Caroline Manwaring
Sharon Davern
Monika O’Neill
Sue Madex
Ros Davidson
Kate Morgan
Andrea Roberts
Tina Gillespie
Rachel Woollard 

Bye for now,

Tina

Orlando Roomie Gifts

Hi!

I'm back now from Orlando, and I had a wonderful time!

Today I have for you the gifts I made and had made for the ladies I shared a house with in Orlando. While on the hunt for Australian flag pencils for my swaps, I found these pens. Perfect!

I started with the same backing paper as I used for the pencils, but the only pieces I had left went sideways, not longways. I couldn't do a bag topper as I did for the pencils, so I went with a belly band instead.

I only had 6 to make, so I decided to stamp the kangaroos and colour them with my Blends. It was an extra special touch for some special people. I layered the kangaroos over a pair of Pool Party circles. I love the starry paper from the Twinkle Twinkle DSP pack, a bit of a nod to the American flag.

I wanted to make the gift extra special, and a little more personal, so I had some tote bags made up by Vistaprint to commemorate the trip.

Here's the tote. It's the perfect size for 12x12 papers, so I can see myself using it a lot - yes, I did have one made for me too. Hopefully the others find it just as useful!

Bye for now,

Tina

An Expedition Gift

Hi!

I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, but by the time it publishes, I will have been in Salt Lake City for a couple of days with my friend and travel mate, Judy May. If all went to plan, we would have spend the weekend checking out the city and listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with fellow travellers Kathryn Mangelsdorf and Rachel Palmieri. We are off to tour Stampin' Up! Head Office today. How exciting, to see where it all happens!

Today's post is about the card and little gift I made and had made for Judy. She did an amazing job planning and organising our trip, for which I was very grateful.

I used paper from the Animal Expedition DSP, as it's so cute, and I thought a perfect choice for the card. I really love the birdie paper! The sentiment, from Treehouse Adventures, is also the perfect choice for the card - I fee like we really are off on an adventure.

I stamped and then coloured the Kangaroo with my Blends. I used the Soft Suede, Smoky Slate and Petal Pink combos. Can you see the silver around the edges? I ran out of Silver Foil paper, so I sponged the edge of the card with Versamark ink and then added Silver Embossing Powder before heat embossing. Too easy!

I also had a bone folder engraved to commemorate the trip. My friend, Alisha and her hubby did the engraving for me. I was so pleased with how it turned out!

To make the case for the bone folder I took a strip of Berry Burst cardstock that was a little wider and nearly twice as long as the folder. I rounded the corners and then scored lines for the fold at the bottom and the flap at the front. I then took a piece of Animal Expedition DSP and wrapped it around the cardstock, adhering it to the cardstock at the back. You need to do this with the bone folder inside the cardstock, otherwise it may end up too tight a fit. I then tied a length of Berry Burst ribbon around the whole thing.

How sweet is this sentiment and tag? The stamp is from the Bunch Of Blossoms stamp set, and the tag is from the Window Box Thinlits set. I punched a small heart from Silver Glimmer Paper using the Cookie Cutter Builder Punch.

I hope Judy enjoys using her bone folder while remembering our trip for many years to come.

Of course, I had to get one for myself too!

Bye for now,

Tina

JAI #423: Just Add Colour

Hi!

This week at Just Add Ink we have a colour challenge for you. Kim has given us the following colours to work with.

Just a note that our Colour Challenge rules have changed slightly. Where previously we allowed the addition of any of the Neutrals to the challenge colours, with the Colour Revamp at Stampin' Up! we are now only allowing the addition of any of the Basics or Metallics.

I loved this colour combo, but I found Soft Suede the hardest to include. In the end, I decided to use it to make some earth for my sweet little elephant to stand on. Once I go my head around that, the rest came together easily! I used my Basic Grey Watercolour Pencil to colour the elephant and then blended (as usual!) with my Wink Of Stella pen. I think I've forgotten how to use the pencils with water!

To bring some silver into the mix, I heat embossed some stars and the sentiment. I didn't feel like it was enough silver, so I decided to add some to the edges of the main panel and the card base. To do this I swiped my Versamark inkpad over the edges of the cardstock and then tipped the embossing powder over the edges. I then heat set the powder as usual. It's such a cool effect, as it's not uniform all the way around the edge. It was my first time trying this technique, but certainly not the last!

I just had to include the back side of the elephant on the inside. It's hard to see in the photos, but I used my new Tufted DTIEF to emboss the Bermuda Bay cardstock on the front. I also embossed the smaller strip for the inside to tie them together.

That's ti for me today - you can see the gorgeous cards the rest of the team have created with Kim's colours over at the Just Add Ink blog. Don't forget our rules have changed slightly when you are making your masterpiece!

Bye for now,

Tina

A Delightful Blushing Bride

Hi!

It's Tuesday evening, which means it's time for the new Colour Creations Blog Share. Are you enjoying our trip through the Stampin' Up! colour collection? I am!

This week the focus colour is Blushing Bride. It's such a lovely, dusky soft pink. A soft colour needs a soft paper, so I decided to use some of my Delightfully Detailed SDSP. The oval piece was perfect for my plans. I wanted the main panel of my card to be Blushing Bride, so I decided to brayer some ink over the paper. To stretch the paper even further, I cut a piece of Whisper White the same size as the oval panel and layered the two pieces before I brayered. The result was two pieces with an oval feature in Blushing Bride. You can see what I do with the second piece on Friday.

For today's card I used the DSP piece. I love Blushing Bride paired with Early Espresso, don't you? And even better with a piece of the dark Wood Textures DSP!

I pulled out my Animal Outing Stamp set and stamped the Kangaroo on some Watercolour paper. I coloured her with my Aqua Painter using the following inks: Crumb Cake (Kangaroo), Early Espresso (Kangaroo shading), Grey Granite (Koala), Blushing Bride (Kangaroo chest, ears and nose, and koala nose), Pear Pizzazz (grass) and Balmy Blue (sky).

How adorable is that banner? I used my Pick A Pennant stamp set to make it. I don't have the matching dies, but it was easy enough to trim around the banner. I snipped up between each section of the banner so that I could curve it a little more across my card. Don't you love the rustic texture the wood paper adds to the background? It's such a sweet contrast against the lacy paper.

I added and coloured another Kangaroo on the inside using my Aquapainter and inkpads. It's just on Whisper White this time, so it's never as good a result as when I used Watercolour paper, but it's good enough. And look - I managed to stamp the 'Little One' stamp correctly first time! LOL

You can see what the rest of the ladies have created over at Catherine's blog. Just a little tip - when you get to the list of links you can right click on the link instead of left clicking. A little box should pop up and you can choose to open the link in a new window or new tab. This little trick saves you from jumping back and forth between each blog and Catherine's. You can just click on each window/tab in turn and close it when you're done looking and hopefully commenting!

Bye for now,

Tina

Why, Hello, Blueberry Bushel!

Hi!

Welcome to the new Colour Creations Blog Share!

This week we are focussing on Blueberry Bushel, one of the new In Colours. Blue is one of my favourite colours, so I decided to have a bit of fun this week.

I started with the background of my card, brayering Blueberry Bushel ink over the top of some Shimmery White cardstock. Once I was happy with the depth of colour I flicked some water over the cardstock with my fingers. I need to practice more, as some of my splatters were a little large!

The animals from A Little Wild were coloured using my Watercolour pencils and then blended using my Wink Of Stella pen - my favourite way to use the pencils. The sentiment was typed on some card using my old type writer then trimmed and popped up on Dimensionals.

Have you ever made a whoopsie on a card? This was my doozie!

Uh Oh! The 'Little One' was the very last thing I had to stamp on the inside, and I managed to stuff it up. Luckily, I had a brainwave on how to fix it - I turned it into the sun!

I simply punched a circle over where the sentiment was, trimmed the sentiment bits, adhered some Daffodil Delight card behind the circle and adhered the sentiment pieces over the top. Done! The rest of the inside was a mirror of the outside - so cute how they include the back side of the animals in the stamp set.

You can find the rest of this week's blogs over at Catherine's blog.

Bye for now,

Tina